I have a foolproof process for choosing paint color. In college I would get a great idea for paint color in my mind. I would go to home depot and look through their millions of paint chips and choose the paint chip that most matched the color I was thinking of. Every single time it ended up looking really crappy because they had SO MANY shades it was hard to choose the one that would really look like you wanted it to.

Until I discovered Martha Stewart Paint Colors. Martha Stewart created a fairly simple paint line with the most fabulous colors. So when you decide to paint your shelf a minty green like the one you saw in a magazine, Martha gives you four versions of “minty green” and you can choose. The four shades of minty green ALL look great. It is much easier than choosing from 35 “minty greens” at Home Depot.

I have done a billion projects all using this process and it ALWAYS works. The nearest Kmart is about an hour from here and I was making a trip there about once a month JUST for the paint chips. So at somepoint a year ago I spent 15 minutes in front of the display collecting one of every color paint chip. (It was a little embarrassing.) Then I had Kinkos punch holes into them and turn them into four mini books full of paint chips. That way I can have the Home Depot (which is only 20 minutes away) match the chip. Here is a picture of one of my books: